Sorry to hear about your concerns. Unfortunately it is difficult to answer the question without seeing the appropriate tests.

1. why are the increase in rate and is my heart being weakened ?
To know why your rate is increased, I need to know what your baseline rhythm is and if it is paced. If it is a paced rhythm, simply turning down the pacemaker settings will decrease the rate.

You can also decrease the rate on a some pacemakers by decreasing the sensitivity of the exercise or exertional sensor. It may just be that the rate is set too high and turning you down to a back up rate of 40 or 50 is the right thing for you.

I doubt it is weakening your heart -- it sounds like you don't have any symptoms to suggest this except the increased heart rate after your pacemaker. It is important to make sure the pacer is not pacing the ventricle too much. The device can be programmed to make sure this doesn't happen.

An echocardiogram would tell you if your heart function is decreasing -- but symptomatically you tell me you are doing fine, so I would do no further testing.

2. Should I have the pacemaker removed??

No. Extracting pacemakers is dangerous and only should be done when absolutely necessary.

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